I Pity His Kindergarden Teacher

The locker room, Connor's second day of swim lessons.

Connor started swim lessons this week. His first day was a disaster. He completely freaked out when his teacher insisted he put on goggles and put his face in the water to blow bubbles, and when she tried to carry him around the pool he started fighting with her, pinching and hitting her. When I picked him up (I wasn't there because they tell the parents to go away because they are a distraction), he was bawling his eyes out, and after I talked to his swim teachers, leading him away to the locker rooms, he was still so upset that he threw up on the tile. Thank goodness not in the pool. But good grief! That boy has a brick head, a will of iron. If he makes up his mind that he doesn't want to do something, it's very difficult to derail his train of thought.

I immediately formed a strategy, telling his teacher, who is a no-nonsense kind of gal, that I would bring Connor back to the pool later and work with him to get him ready for class the next day. So, that's what we did. I brought him back that afternoon, and we took things slow and easy, fitting a pair of goggles to his face and he sat on the steps while blowing bubbles in the water. He was resistant every step of the way, "No, I don't want to do that!" but I told him that there was no way he was getting to swim in the new awesome pool if he didn't go to swim lessons. Plus, I threatened to take away his Wii privileges. That almost always produces results.

Connor also got a lot of guff from his Dad, Gil, and Dani. "You hit your teacher?! That is sooo bad!" And everyone gave him a hard time to the point that he was rolling his eyes and holding up his hand, "Okay, I don't want to talk about it anymore!"

The next day went a lot better, almost a total 180, and he did what his teachers told him to do, for the most part. He's still a little resistant, but at least he's not freaking out and hitting people. The no-nonsense gal has taken up the lifeguard position on the sidelines, leaving Connor with the soft-talking-sooth-the-children swim teacher. Frankly, he needs someone to be firm with him, because he's so bull-headed, he's going to run right over a meek personality.

I'm kind of dreading kindergarden because we've had some interesting incidents with him in primary. Once, he was sitting out in the hall pouting because he didn't want to be in sharing time, and he watched until all five adults in the hallway weren't looking, and he snuck off from church and just walked home. We looked all over the church, under tables, in cabinets, and finally we figured out what happened to him. He was just sitting at home, watching tv. Just a few weeks ago, they were discussing birthdays in class, and he got so upset that it wasn't it his birthday yet, that he wound up hiding under the sinks in the bathroom. I had to go in and lay down the law before he'd go back to class. His poor teacher is the soft-spoken kind, and tries to talk him out of his stubbornness, but it hardly ever works. He needs a demonstration of consequences before he will change his train of thought. Sweet-talking and logic don't make a dent. He has to be diverted by an entirely new train of thought or be forced to turn.

His poor kindergarden teacher. I feel a lot of parent-teacher conferences coming my way. Frankly, a part of me is preparing to home school that kid. I don't know yet how bad it's going to be in the more-structured atmosphere of public school.